Kevin Na

[Tony_Chapman]

Did anyone see the "highlights" of his 16 today on the 9th at Valero? He made five birdies, a bogey and the 16 on the 9th today for an 80. To make things even better he was on my fantasy team today. Awesome.....

[Mark McKeever]

That was wild.  I dont know why he wouldnt have declared such a tee shot lost...

Mark

[Tony_Chapman]

Mark -- I think he did. The first time he hit it in there, he declared an unplayable and went to re-tee. He hit it in the "branches" -- for lack of a better term -- on the second ball and then went to find it. He found and when he hit it; it hit him and the leg and he didn't find it. So, he had to go from there and couldn't get out of the trees. It was a nice two-putt, though.

I'm just shocked that he played the back nine in 33 with three birdies and no bogeys. I'd have walked off....

[Ryan Farrow]

I'm all for OT threads, but OT threads about Kevin Na? Really?

[William_G]

and he wore metal spikes at the Masters...dude!

[Pete_Pittock]

score was originally registered as a 14, then upgraded to 15 and now this. It was gruesome watching it live. Plus he was miked for TV and we got to hear a lot of stuff beyween he and his caddy and as his group was trying to figure out his score, "somewhre between 10 and 15 and closer to 15".

PGA only kept hole by hole scores since 1983 and this is the 3d highest overall, and highest on a par 4. (Daly had a 18 at Bay Hill and Gary McCord a 16 at Memphis (?).

[Bill_McBride]

score was originally registered as a 14, then upgraded to 15 and now this. It was gruesome watching it live. Plus he was miked for TV and we got to hear a lot of stuff beyween he and his caddy and as his group was trying to figure out his score, "somewhre between 10 and 15 and closer to 15".

PGA only kept hole by hole scores since 1983 and this is the 3d highest overall, and highest on a par 4. (Daly had a 18 at Bay Hill and Gary McCord a 16 at Memphis (?).

Porky Oliver once had a 19 on the 16th at Cypress Point during the Clambake.

I think there was some rappelling down the ice plant at one point or another..............

[William_G]

Did anyone see the "highlights" of his 16 today on the 9th at Valero? He made five birdies, a bogey and the 16 on the 9th today for an 80. To make things even better he was on my fantasy team today. Awesome.....

the score was thought to be a 15, then was recorded one stroke higher due a whiff he recorded himself.

[Robert Mercer Deruntz]

Most impressive was how he handled a complete tournament disaster.  How many people would handle a major loss of income with such an upbeat attitude?  And he showed superb character as a player with his very strong finish. 

[Tim Martin]

Most impressive was how he handled a complete tournament disaster.  How many people would handle a major loss of income with such an upbeat attitude?  And he showed superb character as a player with his very strong finish. 

He has always been tough to root for because of his agonizingly slow play. He redeems himself a fair amount for hanging in there and handling the situation with grace.

[JLahrman]

He has always been tough to root for because of his agonizingly slow play. He redeems himself a fair amount for hanging in there and handling the situation with grace.

Yes, there is a joke in here somewhere about how it took him an hour and a half to complete the hole.  But I agree with you, a lot of pros would have just packed it in.

[Bill_McBride]

He has always been tough to root for because of his agonizingly slow play. He redeems himself a fair amount for hanging in there and handling the situation with grace.

Yes, there is a joke in here somewhere about how it took him an hour and a half to complete the hole.  But I agree with you, a lot of pros would have just packed it in.

I heard 20 minutes on NPR.

[Mark Woodger]

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2011/04/tin-cup-2-watch-kevin-na-melt-down-with-16-on-par-4-hole-texas-open/1

personally i don't think i can watch it. but here is a video link for it.

[JLahrman]

Well, watching the video, it's actually pretty easy to see how it happened.  He tried to play his second drive that had gone way right into the brush.  Once he hit that ball, he lost the option of going back and reteeing.  The brush was so thick that he was having trouble moving the ball more than five or ten yards at a time, and sometimes the ball went backwards, but he had no other options at that point.  Unless he could have declared an unplayable, and somehow moved back on a direct line from the green to his ball where he could have found a spot that would have let him loft it out of there.

He did make a nice 6-footer for the 16.

He then went on to not card any more bogeys the rest of the day, moving on to play the back nine in 3-under 33.  Pretty impressive, actually.  And he was smiling when he was walking up the ninth hole.

Na to caddy:  "How are we going to count all of those shots?"
Caddy:  "I have no idea."
Na:  "I can't keep track."
Caddy:  "They've got it on tape, they're just going to have to go back and count it."
Good stuff.

[George Pazin]

Well, watching the video, it's actually pretty easy to see how it happened.  He tried to play his second drive that had gone way right into the brush.  Once he hit that ball, he lost the option of going back and reteeing.  The brush was so thick that he was having trouble moving the ball more than five or ten yards at a time, and sometimes the ball went backwards, but he had no other options at that point.  Unless he could have declared an unplayable, and somehow moved back on a direct line from the green to his ball where he could have found a spot that would have let him loft it out of there.

He did make a nice 6-footer for the 16.

He then went on to not card any more bogeys the rest of the day, moving on to play the back nine in 3-under 33.  Pretty impressive, actually.  And he was smiling when he was walking up the ninth hole.

Na to caddy:  "How are we going to count all of those shots?"
Caddy:  "I have no idea."
Na:  "I can't keep track."
Caddy:  "They've got it on tape, they're just going to have to go back and count it."
Good stuff.

I thought they couldn't go to the videotape anymore...

My PR is 13; anyone else?

[RJ_Daley]

I also think his ability to smile and move on is impressive.  I can think of plenty of other pro personalities that would have gone into total meltdown.  I feel more sorry for the caddy as he sees a potential decent paycheck based on making the cut and finishing well, go out of his pocket.  Na has a recored 805K earnings to date.  After expenses and caddie fees, and what not, he probably still pulled in a half mil already this year, so he can smile easier so that the caddie.  Then again, if his caddie already made 10% of that 800K, that isn't chump change either (at least not in my world). 

There are 3 guys that shot higher than Na's 80!!!

[rjsimper]

I think that this actually helps Na's Q score, given that he has such a reputation for being kind of slow and boring.

The person who comes out of this looking bad is the caddie....looked like he wanted to wrap a 7 iron around Na's neck.  "How dare you piss my payday away like that"

[JLahrman]

I think that this actually helps Na's Q score, given that he has such a reputation for being kind of slow and boring.

The person who comes out of this looking bad is the caddie....looked like he wanted to wrap a 7 iron around Na's neck.  "How dare you piss my payday away like that"

I understand that Na hit a provisional ball when he hit his second drive.  If I were the caddy, since they had already been over in the brush once to assess the first drive and knew how much trouble was there, I would have strongly recommended to Na that he declare the second drive lost and play the provisional.  If he could have made a par off of this provisional, he would have wound up with an 8 on the hole and a 72 for the day.

IF the caddy had (wisely) recommended this course of action and Na had foolishly ignored him, I would not have been happy either.  Of course, it could have been a marshall who found the second drive.  I don't have enough info.

[Garland Bayley]

...

My PR is 13; anyone else?

You and me both. Mine was a hole with OB left. There is a reason they call me Mr. FORE LEFT at my course.

[Alex Miller]

"My PR is 13; anyone else?"

I had an 8, 9, and 10(my PR) in the same round. I also made eagle. This was all in the first seven holes of the round, which was by the way, a competitive one.

I'm impressed that Na was able to come away smiling AND play well. I've seen people give up in the middle of the round so they aren't crushed by a bad hole, but the fact that he shot 33 coming in is the most impressive thing to me.

[Matthew Rose]

I've made two 10s in competition... the second one hurt really bad because it was the 17th hole and I was working on a sub-80 round, which at that point I'd only done once in competition before. I doubled the last hole, went +8 on my last two holes and ended up with 86.

I also have a 9 on a par-three in my repertoire, made in my first ever high school match while my coach was watching me hit every agonizing shot. I think I might still own the school record for penalty strokes in one event.

[Bill_McBride]

I understand that Na hit a provisional ball when he hit his second drive.  If I were the caddy, since they had already been over in the brush once to assess the first drive and knew how much trouble was there, I would have strongly recommended to Na that he declare the second drive lost and play the provisional.  If he could have made a par off of this provisional, he would have wound up with an 8 on the hole and a 72 for the day.

IF the caddy had (wisely) recommended this course of action and Na had foolishly ignored him, I would not have been happy either.  Of course, it could have been a marshall who found the second drive.  I don't have enough info.

I don't think they can just call the ball lost. The gallery was looking right at it.

[mike_beene]

a few years ago there was talk of a new option for unplayable that would allow you to go back to any spot already played from.Was that rule not passed?It sounded like he only had the three options and was forced to play from the junk once he started.

[Kevin Pallier]

I think that this actually helps Na's Q score, given that he has such a reputation for being kind of slow and boring.

No wonder - considering his caddy seems to line up every shot.....

Not a good look for mine not knowing how many shots one plays - you have two people there to help you count them.....though I was impressed how he smiled about it near the end of it all.

[JLahrman]

I don't think they can just call the ball lost. The gallery was looking right at it.

Well that would be the flaw in my plan.  It would have to be someplace where nobody was right around to see it.

If declaring it lost was not an option, as the caddy I would have said go back and hit 5 from the tee.